GL.iNet GL-BE3600 Slate 7 Travel Router

If you need a Travel Router, look no further.

Coming from the Slate AX (GL-AXT1800), which I used for a year before getting this one. It's a nice upgrade for my use case as I needed the faster ethernet ports for the internet connection(s) I use while I travel. This Travel Router is really great for me, small to carry, plug in, sign in and all my devices are online. Easy to use and great performance! I was wishfully waiting for the Slate 7 Pro (GL-BE10000) to be officially released in the US, but unfortunately that is not the case yet so this will be my Primary Travel Router for the time being. These really are great devices, GL.iNet nailed it with these!

Great little router for many uses. (Hotspot Tethering works great)

Fantastic little router. Top Notch customer support. I bought this router to connect to phone's mobile hotspot on my Samsung S24+. I use repeater mode (no wired tethering needed), so I could have wifi for all my devices without limitations. I run a Proton Wireguard VPN through it and it improves streaming performance so I can watch Youtube in 4k on my basic cellphone plan. It also has a advance settings for TTL/HL for people who need them. The Wireguard throughput speeds are more than adequate for my uses. I had an issue with the latest update with the app communicating saved VPN server switching correctly, but chatted with support and together we got it all figured out and working correctly. They were prompt and helpful. (Many thanks to Bernard Lo at customer support). I love the front display and usually leave it on bandwidth throughput monitoring to see internet activity. The only cons I would say is, it does run warm and the fan setting could be set to turn on at a lower temp, but you can only make it turn on at 70c or higher. I bought a little fan for it to sit on and it dropped my temps from 67-68c down to 38-40c. Less heat means longer lifespan and less throttling. It's designed to run at warmer temps just fine but I like to keep things cool. I use the GL-iNet app in Cloud mode since I cant connect my phone to its wifi (because my phone is the hotspot), and it works great. Overall fantastic little device.

Mr. Benjamin

June 23, 2026

GLiNet Slate 7 Router

Does not stay connected to public nor hotel WiFi. Began to flicker. Now on sales for $40+ less. Returning for different, more affordable and easier WiFi 7 option.

Great little travel router

I really like the functionality of this device. I have not explored all of it yet, but the wireguard support works really well. I setup my own wireguard server on a raspberry pi and have been able to connect to it easily while traveling. So far, getting on networks while traveling has been easy and reliable. It is nice and small to boot! The touch screen is responsive an logical. I like the user settable switch on the side. I bound it to my vpn connection so that I can quickly start or stop the vpn connection back home with a physical switch.

Natucha

March 29, 2026

Run into several issues.

I’m a fan of the brand and have owned several of their routers over the years (six total, three currently in use). I was really looking forward to this one.

However, it feels like less attention is being paid to the software lately, and this product is 90% software. One of GL.iNet’s biggest strengths has always been how easy their routers are to set up compared to others, but it seems like they may be losing that edge.

I set everything up and was prompted to update the firmware. I did the update and kept my settings, but after the reboot the admin password no longer worked. I had to factory reset and start from scratch. After setting everything up again, I power-cycled the device to test it with a battery bank, and the admin password failed again.

I repeated the process, this time only setting the admin password before rebooting, and it failed immediately.

After doing a full firmware re-flash without keeping any configuration, the issue finally stopped, but I had already spent around four hours troubleshooting and reconfiguring everything.

Now, LuCI (the advanced web interface) no longer installs or works.

In terms of hardware, the router consumes about 7–9W even without traffic or VPN usage. In a cool room, the CPU sits around 73°C and the device gets quite hot. This is with the screen off and no tethering or additional devices connected. For comparison, my Raspberry Pi 4 with two USB network adapters consumes around 4W.

Despite all this, once everything is set up and the admin password remains stable, the router performs well. VPN setup is very easy, both for popular providers and custom configurations. The drag-and-drop experience works as expected.

Another REALLY annoying thing is that every single message (new post or even a reply) on their forum needs to be approved by an admin, that takes several hours.

Excellent for home use and travel

Excellent router with great range for its size, it has replaced my main router due to its excellent user interface and wonderful customization features in the app.

the speeds are enough for all of our devices to be connected through WiFi in a 2 story house and never have i noticed any connection issues

Great product, especially for the price.

Great product. I’ve got two that I use for wireless control of AV equipment for events. My only issue is I can’t figure out how to change the time setting to show the 12hr time system instead of the 24hr time system. Does anyone know how or know if it’s even possible?

Small wifi 7 router

Compact travel router we display

Best WiFi for home and travel

Love this. I am able to set up times for my kids devices. And have a different setting for guests to have slower wifi so mine is not slowed down. Also works with my vpn. And it supper easy to setup. Also works to keep my 3d printer running

So much versatility

Richard H.

January 27, 2026

Powerful unit, but not good for a portable device.

If you’re trying to use this as a travel router, make sure you try it for a few days and make sure that the settings get saved if you power it off and on. Unfortunately, I got a unit with bad flash memory and so it loses its settings every time power gets turned off. I’m upgrading from another GL.iNet that is a few years old where I never had this problem. I have upgraded to the latest firmware. I’ve spent hours on it and finally doing a lot of research I found out that it will not save it settings if the flash memory is bad. Really frustrating because I am on a 10 day trip and every time when power gets cut off to the router, I have to go through and reconfigure it all again with the VPN settings I want. I did test it at home and it worked great and then the next day I tested it again and I did have to reset the settings but thought maybe I just did not save them or did something wrong, but it turns out that the flash memory is bad.

Very disappointed that I spent a lot of money for a reliable product and now have to deal with a factory bad unit and exchange it when I get home.

Also know that this is one of their bigger routers and gets extremely hot if you try to carry it around in a bag with a battery pack. Would work fine if you have it out in the open air and have a lot of power that it requires, but do not try to use this as a portable unit in a bag with a battery pack unless you can have it in the open air. The unit is a workhorse if you get a good one and can allow airflow all around it, but if you’re trying to keep it in a bag as you move around a cruise ship, it’s not very good.

Unfortunately, I did not bring my old GL.iNet unit since I thought this would be a much better solution and more reliable.

Amazonoholic

January 14, 2026

So much bang for the buck

Where has this been all my life? I love this router. It was super simple to get setup and everything just works. I love the built in AdGuard and TOR functionality… finally a router based way to block adds and block ISPs from watching what im doing. The built in OpenVPN function works well. I just fed it my OpenVPN config file and gave it my server’s credentials and boom, I have a VPN connection to my home network. It’s crazy how much bang for your buck you get with this.

Timothy

January 2, 2026

Small but Extremely Powerful, Worth the Price

Though very small and compact, the amount of customization you can do with this Slate 7 is insane. Arguably worth the cost. I use this as a repeater in the house, and has boosted my speeds tremendously, with very little setup required. The phone app makes life so much easier as well. I have not had any connectivity issues at all with this tiny guy.

Security and piece of mind

Outstanding I use mine to separate all of my devices from the shared networks used by the other roommates in the apartment.

Awesome product!!

Workings so smoothly and range from this little router is incredible I love that it has so many features that I would gladly use such as tailscale integration, VPN, and Adguard Home such things any normal person would appreciate having on such a great product!!

Mark

November 27, 2025

Best travel router I've ever had

I bought this to address a specific network issue I was experiencing between my main system and a MS Surface Pro.

I needed a way to increase the bandwidth between these 2 devices, and also provide Internet. On both systems I installed USB-C 2.5GB network adapters. I set the WAN port to a LAN port, and plugged both systems in. I connected the router as a client to the WIFI.

Now normally, when you have both an active WIFI and ethernet connection, the primary connection always defaults to the ethernet. I manually set the metric on my main system to default to the WIFI. On the surface, I disabled the WIFI so it goes through via the travel router. This established a route from the main PC to the Surface via ethernet. After testing the speed between the systems, I was getting a solid 1.8Gbps.

That perfectly fixed my issue, but wait....there's more..

Now that I had this very robust router up and running, I absolutely had to check out it's other features. The web interface is extremely intuitive and I quickly got a sense of all of the features available. I tested the VPN client by adding my ProtonVPN manually to the router, and it only took about 3 minutes to have it up and running and tested. It has AdGuard built in, which I won't need much at home since I run PiHole, but it will be very handy when I am travelling.

There are a lot of options for remotely managing the router, but also it has an SSH connection. For the very tech-savvy, this is a welcome feature.

There is a ton more I could spend hours writing about, but let me condense it down to this.

I was worried about spending this much to fix a minor issue I had, but after seeing how perfectly it fixed the issue, and the additional tools that this adds to my travel kit, I am more than satisfied, This is high quality and worth every penny.

A very versatile and surprising travel router

Features of this router that caught my attention:

- Touchscreen to monitor the status of router services.

- 2.5G WAN and LAN ports.

- OpenWrt: This allows for a lot of versatility and different use cases.

- USB 3.0 port with tethering functionality (using Android or iPhone phones).

- VPN: Ability to load OpenVPN and WireGuard configurations from different VPN services, increasing security when traveling.

The real deciding factor for purchasing this router was that, because it is based on OpenWrt, it was possible to configure a rule in the firewall to always have a specific TTL value when using the tethering option. The goal was to share cellular data, which is truly unlimited, and not “hotspot” data (shared gigabytes in Latin America), which operators detect as shared and which do have a capacity limit, which can be reflected in a certain amount of “hotspot” gigabytes or a reduction in speed (for example: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile in the United States).

Amazing

Great router I use it to work remotely. I called Glinet and they assisted me with setting up the router. Great router and great customer service

Has trouble connecting with hotspots

Absolutely terrible,cannot connect with hotspot. Troublesome configuration, not worth it.

Compact and Security Enhancement

I like user friendly technology and definitely not a techie. Wanted a travel router as the more you read about ways thieves steal your personal information via open/public wifi connections the more care is needed to protect your information when traveling. I liked the compactness of the router as it can fit in my business backpack or briefcase. It was easy to set up for me, at least, first at home to test it then traveling. It's speed and connectivity are good. The fact it allows for VPN and other functions are pluses adding to it's value.

In terms of use I used it internationally. No problem in use and functionality in hotels, specifically Marriott chain hotels. I was then planning to use on cruise ship while on vacation. Celebrity Cruises does not list Travel Routers as banned item in their public website. I discovered much to my displeasure, that they are listed in their internal banned device list. It was seized and returned at the end of the trip! So I couldn't use it which was very annoying. Suggest you check prior to cruise as Celebrity told me banned as well for Royal Caribbean, Silver Seas, and they thought competitor cruise lines!

So I don't regret purchasing this router. Will continue to use in hotels, AirBnB, etc while traveling as a layer of protection for internet use. Highly recommend.

Love this thing and I've yet to have a problem with it

I gotta say this is a extremely impressive router. I have been traveling around with it and I love the fact at how small and portable it is. It powers off my battery bank and I have been using it in hotels very often. When it connects it automatically connects to my VPN at home(or whatever I want but usually home) and just "works". I like that it has it's feet in open-wrt and GL.NET is excellent thus far with the updates. It's extremely fast and the security is great except for maybe the QR code thing on the screen but I am not using that so fine by me I guess as I understand it is supposed to be "simplified". It's extremely easy to customize and super fast and I love that it has super fast Ethernet(2.5gb) which is insane to me in such a small form factor the wifi 7 is just icing on the cake as well. The price is pretty good and I am going to continue using this little guy for all my trips and ventures.

Update

6/13/2026

I'm currently using this router combined with a brume 3 basically everyday now in my trip through asia. I'm currently in a country with a "firewall". I found out that you can install clash client and v2raya client through the luCI client interface. Also if you update the slate 7 to the beta software you can go to openwrt 23(or just straight up install openwrt) and also run AmneziaWG in the stock gl-inet software. My workflow is basically the burme out in front using clash client to connect to a outside server then I am running WG on the slate 7 and everything that connects through it goes through both tunnels. It has performed excellent thus far along with the brume 3. I used the slate 7 by itself through all of japan with wireguard back home to my home WG server and it also worked flawlessly. I really like the LCD screen giving me the ability to see what it's doing. People might see that as a downside but a quick look is really nice.

Amazing pair to the Starlink Mini dish

This is probably one of the best wifi portable routers I have used. Its got great features and the range is amazing!

Travel Router & Security in one container!

I purchased this device so that I could secure the wireless devices my family use while traveling PLUS I have some security cameras that I use only while traveling that are connected to this device.

I have a VPN Client connection set up so that ONLY the gl.iNET device is ‘seen’ by the network; all other clients go through the gl.iNET device with has VPN enabled.

This requires a little effort to set up devices, but once set up, you just have to select the wireless network for mobile devices, tablets, etc.

Great home and travel router

Home use:

This router works well being continuously plugged in and used as a home router. I haven't had issues with the router having issues being plugged in all the time and my devices that are connected to it have been able to have a stable connection, once I disabled the 160mhz bandwidth. With the 160mhz bandwidth on, I did experience some disconnection issues on devices and found that disabling the feature fixed it all.

Travel use:

I have brought this along for travels and it's been really use to setup. I just have to login to the router from my phone and setup the new connection through ethernet or as a repeater and I'm all ready to go within a less than a few minutes. The reliability of the connection has been stable with even 160mhz bandwidth enabled. With 160mhz on, I did notice a nice boost in speed performance on my WiFi 7 device. For traveling, I love the small size of this and how easy it is to power up and get connected.

Touch screen:

When I'm at home, I don't really use the touch screen so much. However, during my travels, I am able to get the password of the device or to turn on and off the VPN. The screen is a really nice feature for those quick conveniences without having to login to the webpanel to make those changes. The screen is reactive to the touch and I don't notice a delay when swiping or interacting with it.

VPN:

The Wireguard VPN performing as a client has been performing nicely without issues. What I really like is that after I login to my VPN provider, I'm able to select different countries and states of where the server is without having to manually upload the configuration file of the VPN server that I want to connect to. I did stress test the feature to see if any traffic would leak and thankfully no internet data or DNS requests has escaped the encrypted tunnel of my VPN.

Overall, I'm very happy with this unit. The install was really easy. I just had to plug it in, find the IP of the device, and I was guided through the setup without any issues. It's been working great as both a home router and a travel router. The Wireguard VPN has been working impressively and the speeds are fantastic. I do have a mix of devices from WiFi 5 to WiFi 7 connected to the unit and they're able to connect just fine.

Agenor Marrero

June 6, 2025

Easy to setup, rich feature router like Vpn, firewall ,OpenWRT and much more .... Recomended

Fast 2.5GB portable router with full apps and easy to administer !! A dream come true !!

With excellent implementation of features like vpn (supports a wide range of it! The cuacore CPU made Fast !

WiFi 7 and 2.4 -5 Bands, this router has it all, and very easy to deal with it and portable ......

!!! :) Very happy with my buy !!! Highly Recommended!

Gr8tful4Vine

June 6, 2025

Great travel router - love gl.inet products for ease of use!!!

The Slate 7 from GL.Inet is my fourth router from them and works just as good if not better than my previous travel routers. I had the original Slate, an Opal, the Beryl, and now the Slate 7 and find these to be INVALUABLE for using public wifi as well as being able to monitor my home network from abroad. These offer me the security with or without VPN to be able to safely run my equipment when I travel without fear of being hacked. I love that I have a 2nd level of security by using the VPN option if I so choose. The setup is easy without or without their app and speeds through the router are awesome. My only issue is size as these have gotten progressively bigger with each release as you can see in my pictures. I have a travel case for the one I take, but these are no longer pocket portable, which is a shame.

Overall, still a great product if you travel a lot as it provides multiple levels of security that are a necessity in this day and age for your electronic equipment on the go!

tailscale doesnt work

defective in that tailscaled no longer is in the add in list of s/w and no longer starts on reboot so you cannot use tailscale easily on this device. i have reported this to support but they are unhelpfull see attachments older router running ,.4.6.8 vs this router running 4.7.1

Gl.inet Does it Again!

I've been a long-time user of Gl.Inet products, and have previously used their Slate AX for sometime. I've also have owned several other products, such as the Mango, Beryl, and currently also have a Puli AX. All have been great products, and Gl.iNet is a company I've recommended and been watching for sometime.

The new Slate 7 comes in a sleek black box, about the same size as previous Slate packaging. It is shrink-wrapped, and then has a pull tab to open the box. You then are greeted with an inner white box, which you can open that houses the Slate 7 itself, an ethernet cable, power supply and adapters for various plugs across the world, and an instruction booklet. All pretty standard from Gl.iNet.

While I haven't compared the Slate AX to the Slate 7 directly, they look to be roughly the same size. The both have antennas on both sides that you can raise up easily. The biggest differentiator between the two, at least visually, is the Slate 7's inclusion of a display touchscreen. Initially plugging in the device, you'll see it starting up with the Gl.iNet logo, and there is a green status bar that displays as the device boots up. The instructions tell you to scan the QR code on the bottom of the device if you are going to connect via wifi, or to connect it via ethernet to another device. I chose to do so using my iPhone, and was able to connect without issue, and was quickly redirected to an initial setup page that had me enter an admin password, and then choose my method of connection for the WAN. Like most Gl.iNet products, you can choose between being a repeater, ethernet, cellular, or tethering. I currently have a Franklin hotspot I wanted it to be handling as a repeater, as the Franklin hotspot has no ethernet connection. I was able to choose this option, which displayed both on my iPhone or you can even do via the touchscreen display. It scanned for nearby networks, which I selected, and then entered the corresponding password. Within about 45 seconds the Slate 7 was connected, and repeating that network. I was able to plug into my main network Firewalla, and had my backup WAN up and running as I was hoping.

Gl.iNet's software is based on Openwrt, so you can access things like Luci to add additional packages and such. Generally, though, their firmware is pretty feature rich. It allows for VPN connections, and quite a bit of configuration details, which I appreciate. I was able to quickly connect both a ProtonVPN wireguard config and a backup Torguard VPN without any issues. Both run, and work just fine in overcoming the mobile network video throttling that we experience.

I really like having the 2.5G ports for both WAN and LAN on the Slate 7. While it isn't making much of a difference for now for me, I know in the future it will be pretty critical having these to allow for the increased connection speeds. On my iPhone 16 Pro Max, testing in the repeater mode I had setup, I was able to achieve the same speeds I could obtain by connecting to the Franklin hotspot's direct wifi network as I could with the Slate 7's. That is what I was hoping for, and was exactly what I needed.

I've never been disappointed in a Gl.iNet product. This one is well worth the cost, while pricey, it is pretty much their top of the line travel router. It's a very handy size, they do offer a separate case you can purchase to make traveling with it even easier. Highly recommend this, and don't think you will be disappointed.

Great little travel router, bit heavier than the predecessor but still a great buy.

So in case you don’t have the time to read the whole review, here’s the short recommendation:

Would I buy the GL-BE3600 (Slate 7) again?

Yes, if you don’t have a travel router yet - then yes, go get it!

Maybe, if you have the predecessor GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX, WiFi 6), then it’s a nice but not necessary upgrade.

But here a bit more detail:

For the past 24+ months the GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX, WiFi 6) was my travel partner and secured all my network connections while on the road. I was excited when GL.iNet announced their new model, the Slate 7 and I decided to get it at their pre-sale event.

Now after a few weeks of using the new unit and shlepping it with me on all my business travel I can say that this is a fun update but falling short on some topics.

The first thing we have to mention is that GL-iNet’s new travel router (GL-BE3600 Slate 7) is significantly heavier than the predecessor (GL-MT3000 Beryl AX), a whopping 51% heavier!! Going from 196g (6.91oz) to 295g (10.41oz) is noticeable!

Yes, the device also grew longer and wider and added 9-10mm (0.35-0.39in) on each side - but that didn’t bother as much as the weight gain.

On the other sider there are a few nice improvements; The touch screen display is really helpful, more than initially expected and something I’d like to keep seeing, the performance is awesome and was especially noticeable in VPN connections with our corporate servers, the Ethernet ports on the back are now both 2.5GbE and powering the travel router got easier as it runs now with a USB-C PD power supply - which most of us travel with already.

Yes, it does have WiFi 7, but only dual band, there’s no support for the 6GHz band… given the increased weight that’s a bummer.

Beside all that, there’s a new CPU (quad core Qualcomm), 1GB RAM and 512MG NAND flash.

Significant size and weight difference to previous model:

GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX)

120x83x34mm / 196g

4.72” x 3.23” x 1.34” /6.91oz

GL.iNet GL-BE3600 (Slate 7)

130mm x 92mm x 35mm / 295g

5.12” x 3.63” x 1.38” / 10.41oz

PRO

- Touch screen info display

- Good overall performance

- Better speeds on VPN connections

CONS

- Weight and larger dimensions

- No 6GHz band support

Other Improvements

- CPU: now a Qualcomm quad core

- 1 GB RAM,

- 512 MB NAND flash,

- Two 2.5 GbE interfaces

- easier to power with a USB-C PD power source

Please reboot/power cycle asap to see if dl/up speeds remain consistent

Initial download speeds would run at 300 Mbps but as soon as I power cycled or rebooted the device, it would drop to 30 Mbps. Spent the whole day troubleshooting and decided to call it quits. I'm also using a Slate 6 with the same exact factory configuration for benchmark testing.

I reached out to gl.inet and received no response. This is a travel router and I intend to disconnect and reconnect the power often. I can't have slow speeds knowing the old gen Slate 6 produces 300Mpbs+.

Additional cons vs Slate 6: It's one port less and no longer has a sd-card slot.

Would not recommend at all.

Yoda Bee Toy

May 17, 2025

Fantastic travel router that is packed with features.

Specs -

CPU: Qualcomm Quad-core @1.1GHz

Memory / Storage: 1GB DDR4 / NAND Flash 512MB

Protocol: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be

Wi-Fi Speed: 688Mbps (2.4GHz), 2882Mbps (5GHz)

Antennas: 2 x foldable external Wi-Fi antennas

TF Card Slot: N/A

USB Port: USB3.0 Type-A

Ethernet Port: 1 x 2.5G WAN, 1 x 2.5G LAN

Ethernet Speed: WAN Port: 1 x 2.5G Port (10/100/1000/2500Mbps) LAN Port: 1 x 2.5G Port (10/100/1000/2500Mbps)

Power Input: Type-C, 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/2.5A

Power Consumption: <18W (without USB)

Dimension / Weight: 130 x 91 x 34mm (L*W*H) / 295 g

Package Content:

1 x Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) Router

1 x Power Adapter

1 x Ethernet Cable

1 x Warranty Card

1 x User Manual

Been looking for a travel router for quite sometime now and though I had one from TP, it works ok and but the speed was slow. In fact the router itself was a bottleneck. Well this one truly amazes me and does everything. The one main thing I did was with the app was to verify if it requested any additional info from my account and that wasn't the case. Also did a port sniff and there were no hidden or blocked ports on this router.

Setup was fast and easy and once you download the app, it's even easier. The one I do like is that this travel router is able to be setup as a wifi extender and is able to tether off your phone. The best part is that this router is have an actual decent CPU and testing my speed from the home network. I was able to get 500/20 with my local ISP provider. Though the latency is up there, it's because I have over 20 wireless devices at home. So it's not the router's issue. Also what makes this router great is that it is powered by a USB Type-C and comes with an adapter and several other plug to be use in other parts of the country.

I will update this review again in 3 months after I put this router thru some testing and leaving it powered on with heavy traffic going thru it.